Actress and artist Sola Bamis presents her newest work, “The Tutorial,” at the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater (REDCAT), CalArts’ center for contemporary arts in downtown Los Angeles from Thursday, April 21, though Saturday, April 23, 2022.
Part social media livestream event, film/video installation, solo performance, and theater piece, “The Tutorial” is an irreverent and heartfelt original work that deconstructs and reimagines Toni Morrison’s first novel, “The Bluest Eye.”
The work explores the idea of the self and the other while providing a digital litany for Black women’s survival in the face of Neoliberalism, Big Tech, Hollywood colorism, xenophobia, and cultural genocide.
Bamis’ multi-step skincare tutorial serves as an allegory to the processes of dehumanization that Black and Third World Women have faced, with the third and fourth steps exploring the effects of Jim Crow on our psyche and the implications of forced sterilization on our sexuality.
Earlier in-progress versions of “The Tutorial” were presented at REDCAT’s New Original Works Festival in Summer 2019 and Studio series in Fall 2018.
Bamis is an L.A.-based actress in television, film, and theatre, as well as a voiceover artist. Born and raised in Miami, Florida, to Nigerian immigrant parents, she worked to be a doctor, receiving her B.A. in Chemistry from the University of Miami.
It was during her senior year when she realized that possessing the healing powers of an artist suited her much better. After completing her degree, Sola went on to receive her MFA in Acting from the California Institute of the Arts.
“The Tutorial” is available for viewing both in-person and virtually. For tickets and information, visit https://www.redcat.org/event/sola-bamis-tutorial.
